WWE, FLL and BJU for Grade 2 English?

[monnib]

Hello everyone! 

I'm new here and would love some sound advice. My daughter will be starting 2nd grade soon and is currently using BJU for language arts. She loves the program, but I am worried that BJU grade 2 will be a bit much in terms of the amount of writing (she is only 5 years old). Would adding in WWE 1 and FLL 1 for supplementation be overkill? Or can I just cut out BJU altogether? We already have a handwriting, spelling and creative writing curriculum...

So, option 1: BJU Grade 2 English and handwriting, WWE 1 & FLL 1, Spelling You See

Option 2: WWE, FLL, BJU Handwriting, Spelling You See, Brave Writer: Jot it Down 

Which would you recommend for a young and very reluctant writer?

[Dianthus]

WWE was great for my reluctant writers, but I wouldn't press your 5 yr old so much about writing.  FLL 1 is very light..  I bought but didn't use as it was too light for my then 2nd grader, who was 7.  Why is she in 2nd grade?

[PeterPan]

The more advanced the dc, the less likely they need to do *all* the exercises in something. I would be concerned that even FLL and WWE, in their full workbook forms, will be overkill. The WORST THING you can do with a very bright child is try to teach them too much. Teach them, yes. Facilitate, yes. But don't let what you do get in the way of her education. 

In the old days, before all those long workbooks, we had a compacted form of FLL1/2 that covered just the basics. My dd did that at 5 and then went straight into latin. Ditto for WWE. We had a compacted form that had WWE1-4 in one manual. I highly doubt she needs to work through all those full workbooks, not if she's as precocious as what you're saying. It's just busy work. And if she's going to be doing busy work, why not let her be busy with something SHE wants? I assume she's reading really well and that's why you want to mark her as a rising 2nd grader? So LET HER READ!

Veritas Press and TruthQuest history both have AMAZING book lists. What does your dd like to read? Literature? History? 

8 hours ago, monnib said:

Which would you recommend for a young and very reluctant writer?

How can a 5 yo be a reluctant writer?? Why are you doing so much LA if she's a "reluctant writer"? Kids who are precocious, gifted, bright, advanced, aren't necessarily all in sync. She is still physically a 5 yo, no matter how bright she is. Now you can get weird situations (autism, someone's brain advancing more in one area than another because an area is not working correctly). That happens. But just in general, we still expect a bright 5 yo to be a 5 yo. You don't ask her to do the fine motor tasks of a 7 yo just because she's bright. The reward for hard work is not MORE WORK. 

8 hours ago, monnib said:

Brave Writer: Jot it Down

Why do you need this?? Seriously. She's 5. You do things together and you have her NARRATE. You read a book together and you take turns NARRATING. You play Dixit and you NARRATE little stories. That's it. That's all you need. She's 5. I don't care if you're reading NASA manuals together, it's still the same thing, because she's 5.

You have bored mother syndrome. Don't buy any more curriculum. Go to the library, read, talk about what you're reading. That's it. Your curriculum will get in the way of her education. She will learn more by READING AND NARRATING than if you work through all those curricula. Don't buy them.

Go take a college class. Take up a hobby! Seriously. There are a LOT of bright women here on the boards who had to figure out that their kids were NOT going to satisfy their intellectual needs. You can go to ClickinMoms, join, and start taking classes. Start grad school. I had my 5 yo doing FLL and latin and and and, but reality was I needed to busy my mind.

[monnib]

7 hours ago, Spirea said:

WWE was great for my reluctant writers, but I wouldn't press your 5 yr old so much about writing.  FLL 1 is very light..  I bought but didn't use as it was too light for my then 2nd grader, who was 7.  Why is she in 2nd grade?

Thank you for the advice. She taught herself to read quite young and always wanted to 'play school' so we did. 

[monnib]

25 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

The more advanced the dc, the less likely they need to do *all* the exercises in something. I would be concerned that even FLL and WWE, in their full workbook forms, will be overkill. The WORST THING you can do with a very bright child is try to teach them too much. Teach them, yes. Facilitate, yes. But don't let what you do get in the way of her education. 

In the old days, before all those long workbooks, we had a compacted form of FLL1/2 that covered just the basics. My dd did that at 5 and then went straight into latin. Ditto for WWE. We had a compacted form that had WWE1-4 in one manual. I highly doubt she needs to work through all those full workbooks, not if she's as precocious as what you're saying. It's just busy work. And if she's going to be doing busy work, why not let her be busy with something SHE wants? I assume she's reading really well and that's why you want to mark her as a rising 2nd grader? So LET HER READ!

Veritas Press and TruthQuest history both have AMAZING book lists. What does your dd like to read? Literature? History? 

How can a 5 yo be a reluctant writer?? Why are you doing so much LA if she's a "reluctant writer"? Kids who are precocious, gifted, bright, advanced, aren't necessarily all in sync. She is still physically a 5 yo, no matter how bright she is. Now you can get weird situations (autism, someone's brain advancing more in one area than another because an area is not working correctly). That happens. But just in general, we still expect a bright 5 yo to be a 5 yo. You don't ask her to do the fine motor tasks of a 7 yo just because she's bright. The reward for hard work is not MORE WORK. 

Why do you need this?? Seriously. She's 5. You do things together and you have her NARRATE. You read a book together and you take turns NARRATING. You play Dixit and you NARRATE little stories. That's it. That's all you need. She's 5. I don't care if you're reading NASA manuals together, it's still the same thing, because she's 5.

You have bored mother syndrome. Don't buy any more curriculum. Go to the library, read, talk about what you're reading. That's it. Your curriculum will get in the way of her education. She will learn more by READING AND NARRATING than if you work through all those curricula. Don't buy them.

Go take a college class. Take up a hobby! Seriously. There are a LOT of bright women here on the boards who had to figure out that their kids were NOT going to satisfy their intellectual needs. You can go to ClickinMoms, join, and start taking classes. Start grad school. I had my 5 yo doing FLL and latin and and and, but reality was I needed to busy my mind.

I wish I had the time to be bored;) I've already gone to grad school and run my own business in which I work 12 hours a day. I'm just a mom who is looking for advice on how to help my daughter. 

[PeterPan]

18 minutes ago, monnib said:

I'm just a mom who is looking for advice on how to help my daughter. 

Let her read.

Buy her creative things to play with.

Play with her.

Narrate together.

Is this dc bored?? What is the real solution? (find a mentor, take up a hobby, enroll in classes...)

Edited July 27, 2021 by PeterPan

[monnib]

21 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Let her read.

Buy her creative things to play with.

Play with her.

Narrate together.

Is this dc bored?? What is the real solution? (find a mentor, take up a hobby, enroll in classes...)

 She's what I'd call 'Covid bored'. She's an only child and had to stop her activities last year. We've added violin, dance and art class at the local co op, so it should round her out. 

[Janeway]

Ditto to what Robin Hood said. At 5 yrs old, she should work on handwriting and narrating. There is no such thing as reluctant writer at her age. You need to work on "whole brain growth" through a variety of activities, including sensory rich activities.

[Clarita]

I think any open and go language arts curriculum is going to be too much writing for her, because they are designed for 7 year olds who have been practicing writing for years. If she really enjoys BJU you can still try and use it with her. For the writing portions you just have to prep the materials so she doesn't have to write to complete the task. For example if they have a fill in the blank you may have to write the words on slips of paper for her to glue into the sentences; or if there's vocabulary she's suppose to spell you may give her a moveable alphabet (letters written on slips of paper) and she spells the words using that then later she can transcribe a word or two to practice writing. 

At anytime she doesn't want to do any of it (says she's "tired" or it's "too hard") even if you know it's neither of those things put it away. At this young age they really don't have as much stamina for school work and obviously she so far ahead that she probably doesn't need as much drill as the typical student. 

I totally understand "Covid bored". I think we are going to have a bunch of kindergarteners going to school this year who is academically advanced because we have nothing better to do than to teach our kids to read. We will probably find find that we have to work more on socialization this year.

[monnib]

30 minutes ago, Clarita said:

I think any open and go language arts curriculum is going to be too much writing for her, because they are designed for 7 year olds who have been practicing writing for years. If she really enjoys BJU you can still try and use it with her. For the writing portions you just have to prep the materials so she doesn't have to write to complete the task. For example if they have a fill in the blank you may have to write the words on slips of paper for her to glue into the sentences; or if there's vocabulary she's suppose to spell you may give her a moveable alphabet (letters written on slips of paper) and she spells the words using that then later she can transcribe a word or two to practice writing. 

At anytime she doesn't want to do any of it (says she's "tired" or it's "too hard") even if you know it's neither of those things put it away. At this young age they really don't have as much stamina for school work and obviously she so far ahead that she probably doesn't need as much drill as the typical student. 

I totally understand "Covid bored". I think we are going to have a bunch of kindergarteners going to school this year who is academically advanced because we have nothing better to do than to teach our kids to read. We will probably find find that we have to work more on socialization this year.

Thank you. This is what I was looking for. I scribe 99 percent of her writing now. I will continue to do so until she is developmentally ready to write on her own. Currently, I just have her play with kinetic sand, and play dough while she dictates her answers to me. We usually spend about 10-15 minutes a day doing BJU's language arts and no more than an hour or so total for school each day. I'd read that WWE and FLL only take 5 -10 minutes per day. From the comments here, I see that this may be too much so I'll leave it be. 

She' s always craved structure and all day schooling (hence the curriculum choice), so I make up for that by reading aloud a lot and letting her listen to audiobooks. Fingers crossed that co op 1 day per week will tucker her out! 😄 Thank you again for the fun ideas:)